# The clue-cows manifesto

Jay Carlson (nop@ccs.neu.edu)
Tue, 31 Dec 1996 14:13:30 PST

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    I guess I haven't mailed this out for some time.  Aside from CCS
    totally breaking python for a week and me going to conferences that
    last 5 days, clue-cows has run smoothly for, what, at least a year
    now.

    Except for me just forwarding that message from boston-raves.  Oops.

    The clue-cows manifesto
    =======================

    A number of my friends have unsubscribed from moo-cows due to either
    high volume, or low signal-to-noise ratio.  I started clue-cows
    because I realized I was forwarding messages for them.

    What clue-cows is
    -----------------

    Clue-cows is a forwarding service I provide for selected moo-cows
    articles.  I forward the messages I consider interesting to its list
    of subscribers.

    Clue-cows is effectively a low-tech filtering mechanism.  See below.

    What clue-cows is not
    ---------------------

    Clue-cows is not a mailing list.  That is, you can't send mail to it.
    The only things sent on it are messages that have already appeared on
    moo-cows.

    This implies that you don't need to be subscribed to both.

    Clue-cows is not a Power Elite plot.

    What I forward
    --------------

    I'm not very objective.  I have a strong bias towards people who are
    very well known in the MOO community.  I like answers more than
    questions.  I like technical issues more than social issues on one
    particular MUD.  I tend not to look at messages that aren't formatted
    and spelled nicely.

    Your recourse
    -------------

    If you're a subscriber and you think I'm not doing a good job, you
    have (I think) three choices.

    1) You could whine at me.  Not likely to be effective.

    2) You could unsubscribe to clue-cows and resubscribe to moo-cows;
    after all, you won't miss anything.

    3) You could start your own forwarding service.  Yes, this means that
    you'd have to subscribe to moo-cows again, but you'd be doing *your*
    friends a favor.

    Option 3) is why I claim this isn't a Power Elite plot.  My influence
    is exactly equal to how much people respect my opinion of what's
    important.

    Technical issues
    ----------------

    Clue-cows is currently implemented by an amazing pile of software
    written in python, perl4, mh, and elisp.  Forwarded messages will
    still appear to be To: moo-cows@parc.xerox.com; the only indication
    that a message is from me are "Resent-From: clue-cows" and
    "Resent-Date:" headers.  If you're filtering moo-cows with slocal or
    zinc, you probably don't need to change a thing.

    This is a primitive filtering system.  Of course, what I'd really like
    is a Seals Of Approval (SOAP) implementation for mailing lists, but if
    you know of any better solution than I have now, please let me know.

    How to subscribe
    ----------------

    Send mail to `nop@nop.com'.  Yes, there's a human at that address.  If
    you'd like the rather sporadic digest version, mention that.
    --
    Jay Carlson    nop@nop.com    nop@kagoona.mitre.org

    Flat text is just *never* what you want.   ---stephen p spackman